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Dairy Days Carnival Shut Down

Depending on how you feel about tilt-a-whirls or games of chance, this year's Meridian's Dairy Days is either missing a bit or a bucket-load of fun. Sure, there are plenty of milking contests, plus goat and cattle shows but officials had to shut down the carnival on Friday because operators failed an electrical inspection.

Inland Empire Shows, which operates carnivals throughout the Northwest each summer, was scheduled to operate rides at a site adjacent to the Meridian Speedway but was ordered to shut down just before the carnival got under way late Friday.

Meridian Dairy Days have been held since 1929. According to the United Dairymen of Idaho, dairy is a $2.4 billion industry, making it the largest agricultural sector in the state. Idaho is the third-largest milk-producing state in the United States.